If using 32 Standard (spinning SAS) disks, set as a 16-column single simple storage space for maximum space and performance, we get a 32 TB data disk that delivers 960 MB/s throughput or 8k IOPS (256 KB block size).

32x 1TB GRS Standard (HDD) Page Blobs cost $2,621/month

32x 1TB LRS Standard (HDD) Page Blobs cost $1,638/month

If using 32 Premium (SSD) disks, set as a 16-column single simple storage space for maximum space and performance, we get a 32 TB data disk that delivers 3,200 MB/s throughput or 80k IOPS (256KB block size). Premium SSD storage is available as LRS only. The cost for 32x 1TB disks is 2,379/month

If using a D14 size VM with Cloud Connect, setting up the Veeam Backup and Replication 8, WAN Accelerator, and CC Gateway on the same VM:

16 CPU cores provide plenty adequate processing for the WAN Accelerator which is by far the one component here that uses most CPU cycles. It’s also plenty good for SQL 2012 Express used by Veeam 8 on the same VM.

112 GB RAM is an overkill here in my opinion. 32 GB should be plenty.

800 GB SSD non-persistent temporary storage is perfect for the WAN Accelerator global cache. WAN Accelerator global cache disk must be very fast. The only problem is that it’s non-persistent, but this can be overcome by automation/scripting to maintain a copy of the WAN Accelerator folder on the ‘e’ drive 32 TB data disk or even on an Azure SMB2 share.

In my opinion, cost benefit analysis of Premium SSD Storage for the 32-TB data disk versus using Standard SAS Storage shows that Standard storage is still the way to go for Veeam Cloud Connect on Azure. It’s $740/month cheaper (31% less) and delivers 960 MB/s throughput or 8k IOPS at 256KB block size which is plenty good for Veeam.

An Azure subscription can have up to 50 Storage Accounts (as of September 2014), (100 Storage accounts as of January 2015) at 500TB capacity each. Block Blob storage is very cheap. For example, the Azure price calculator shows that 100TB of LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) will cost a little over $28k/year. LRS maintains 3 copies of the data in a single Azure data center.

However, taking advantage of that vast cheap reliable block blob storage is a bit tricky.

Veeam accepts the following types of storage when adding a new Backup Repository:

I have examined the following scenarios of setting up Veeam Backup Repositories on an Azure VM:

1. Locally attached VHD files:

In this scenario, I attached the maximum number of 2 VHD disks to a Basic A1 Azure VM, and set them up as a Simple volume for maximum space and IOPS. This provides a 2TB volume and 600IOPS according to Virtual Machine and Cloud Service Sizes for Azure. Using 64 KB block size:

Although this option provides adequate bandwidth, its main problem is that it has maximum 1 TB file size which means maximum backup job is not to exceed 1 TB which is quite limiting in large environments.

CloudBerry Drive Server for Windows Server is a tool by CloudBerry that makes cloud storage available on a server as a drive letter. I have examined 10 different tools to perform this task, and CloudBerry drive provided the most functionality. The use case I was after is the ability to upload large files from on-prem servers to Azure VMs. Specifically, I’m testing Veeam Cloud Connect with Azure, which allows for off-site backup to Azure. The backup files are multi-TB each.

However, digging deeper into how CloudBerry drive works showed that CloudBerry Drive caches each received file to a local folder on the VM. According to CloudBerry support this is a must and cannot be turned off. This poses several problems:

It defeats the purpose of using CloudBerry in the first place. An Azure VM (as of 10/2/2014) can have a maximum of 16 TB of local storage which is implemented as 16x 1TB VHD files (page blobs). The point of using CloudBerry Drive is to be able to access Azure block blob storage with has a 500 TB maximum per storage account.

It puts a file size limit equivalent to the maximum amount of space on the local drive used for CloudBerry caching.

CloudBerry Drive then takes the uploaded file from the cache folder and copies it to the Azure block blob storage account.

This makes the destination file in Azure block blob storage locked and unavailable for many hours during that 2nd copy process. For example, if the Veeam cloud backup job successfully backed up 10 out of 12 VMs, and we retry the remaining 2 VMs, the job will fail since the destination file in Azure is locked by CloudBerry

The 2nd copy uses a great amount of read IOPS from the local drive (Page Blobs), and write IOPS to the destination Block Blob storage. Which makes any other task on the VM like another backup job not practically possible even if it is a different backup job is using other unlocked files, because CloudBerry is using up all available IOPS on the VM for hours or even days

The copy incurs transnational, IOPs, and bandwidth charges on an Azure VM unnecessarily

There are better ways to copy data within the same Azure Storage account that are much more efficient and much less costly, such as instantaneous shadow copies..

Summary:

CloudBerry Drive Server for Windows Server caches files locally which makes it not suitable for use on Azure VMs.

There’s a maximum of 5TB capacity per share, and a maximum of 1TB capacity per file.

Use a 3rd party tool such as Cloudberry Drive to make Azure block blob storage available to the Azure VM. This approach has the 500TB Storage account limit which is adequate for use with Veeam Cloud Connect. Microsoft suggests that the maximum NTFS volume size is between 16TB and 256TB on Server 2012 R2 depending on allocation unit size. Using this tool we get 128TB disk suggesting an allocation unit size of 32KB.

– Under the Mapped Drives tab, click Add, type-in a volume label, click the button next to Path, and pick a Container. This is the container we created in step 3 above:

– You can see the available volumes in Windows explorer or by running this command in Powershell:

Get-Volume | FT -AutoSize

Add VHD disks to the VM for the CloudBerry Drive cache:

We’ll add VHD disks to the VM for that cache folder to have sufficient disk space and IOPS for the cache.

Highlight the Azure VM, click Attach at the bottom, and click Attach empty disk. Enter a name for the disk VHD file, and a size. The maximum size allowed is 1023 GB (as of September 2014). Repeat this process to add as many disks as allowed by your VM size. For example, an A1 VM can have a maximum of 2 disks, A2 max is 4, A3 max is 8, and A4 max is 16 disks.

In the Azure VM, I created a 2TB disk using Storage Spaces on the VM as shown:

This is setup as a simple disk for maximum disk space and IOPS, but it can be setup as mirrored disks as well.

Create a folder for the CloudBerry Drive cache on the new disk, and configure CloudBerry Drive to use it:

It’s important to have enough disk space on the drive where CloudBerry Caching occurs. The amount of available space on the Caching drive puts a limit on the file size that can be handled through CloudBerry drive which could be much less than the 128TB available space on a CloudBerry Drive that has an Azure Block Blob back end.

This maps a drive to the Azure share, copies the Veeam 8 iso to c:\sandbox on the VM, and mounts the iso:

These 2 drive mappings are not persistent (will not survive a VM reboot). This is OK since we only need them during setup.

6. Setup a persistent drive mapping to your Azure Storage account:

There’s a number of ways to make Azure storage available to the VM:

Attach a number of local VHD disks. The problem with this approach is that the maximum we can use is 16TB, and we’ll have to use an expensive A4 sized VM.

Attach a number of Azure File shares. There’s a number of issues with this approach:
The shares are not persistent although we can use CMDKEY tool as a workaround.
There’s a maximum of 5TB capacity per share, and a maximum of 1TB capacity per file.

Use a 3rd party tool such as Cloudberry Drive to make Azure block blob storage available to the Azure VM. This approach has the 500TB Storage account limit which is adequate for use with Veeam Cloud Connect. Microsoft suggests that the maximum NTFS volume size is between 16TB and 256TB on Server 2012 R2 depending on allocation unit size. Using this tool we get 128TB disk suggesting an allocation unit size of 32KB.

CloudBerry Drive has proved to be not a good fit for use with Veeam Cloud Connect because it caches files locally. For more details see this post. So, I recommend skipping CloudConnect installation and simply attach up to 16x 1TB drives to the Azure VM (may need to change VM size all the way up to Standard A4 to get the maximum of 16 disks), and set them up as a simple disk in the VM using Storage Spaces)

– Under the Mapped Drives tab, click Add, type-in a volume label, click the button next to Path, and pick a Container. This is the container we created in step 3 above:

– You can see the available volumes in Windows explorer or by running this command in Powershell:

Get-Volume | FT -AutoSize

7. Add VHD disks to the VM for the Veeam Global deduplication cache:

We will be setting up Veeam’s WAN Accelerator for Global Deduplication. This uses a folder for global deduplication cache. We’ll add VHD disks to the VM for that cache folder to have sufficient disk space and IOPS for the cache.

Highlight the Azure Veeam VM, click Attach at the bottom, and click Attach empty disk. Enter a name for the disk VHD file, and a size. The maximum size allowed is 1023 GB (as of September 2014). Repeat this process to add as many disks as allowed by your VM size. For example, an A1 VM can have a maximum of 2 disks, A2 max is 4, A3 max is 8, and A4 max is 16 disks.

In the Azure Veeam VM, I created a 2TB disk using Storage Spaces on the VM as shown:

This is setup as a simple disk for maximum disk space and IOPS, but it can be setup as mirrored disks as well.

If you’re using a VM smaller than A2 with less than 2 CPU core, you’ll receive a warning during Veeam installation. This is safe to ignore.

Select to install the Veeam Powershell SDK

Accept the default installation location under c:\program files\Veeam\backup and replication

Click “Do not use defaults and configure product manually”

Change location of the Guest Catalog folder and vPower cache folder:

Veeam will automatically install SQL 2012 SP1 express on the VM:

10. Add an endpoint to the VM for TCP port 6180:

While Veeam is installing on the VM, let’s add an endpoint for Veeam Cloud Connect. In the Azure Management Portal, click on the VM, click Endpoints, and click Add at the bottom. Add a Stand Alone Endpoint:

Select the e: drive we created in step 7 above, enter the maximum amount of disk space available, and finish:

14. Add a certificate:

This is a one time setup. SSL certificate is needed for authentication and tunnel encryption.

Note: This step requires Veeam Cloud Connect license. Without it, the Cloud Connect Infrastructure will be hidden in the Veeam Backup and Replication 8 GUI.

For production I recommend using a certificate from a public Certificate Authority. For this exercise I will generate a self signed certificate. In Cloud Connect Infrastructure, click Manage Certificates:

Click Generate new certificate

Type in a friendly name

Click “Copy to clipboard” and save this information. We will need the thumbprint when connecting from the client/tenant side. This is only needed because we’re using a self signed certificate. If we used a certificate issued by a public Certificate Authority we would not need that thumbprint.

15. Add Cloud Gateway:

This is also a one time step. Under Cloud Connect Infrastructure, click Add Cloud Gateway:

Pick a server,

Use the Public IP of the Azure VM and the default port 6180.

Select its NIC,

and Finish.

16. Add a user/tenant:

A user may represent a Cloud Connect client/tenant or a corporate site. It is associated with his/her own repository under the main repository, and a lease. The lease corresponds to a backup client/backup cloud provider agreement term.

In the Resources tab, click Add, create a name for the user/client repository name, select a Backup Repository from the drop down menu, check to Enable WAN acceleration, and pick the WAN accelerator from its drop down menu.

From the client/corporate side, in Veeam Backup and Replication 8, under Backup Infrastructure, click the Service Providers node, and click Add a Service Provider:

Enter the IP address or DNS name of the Azure Veeam VM we created above, and click Next:

Since we used a self-signed certificate, we need to provide the thumbprint from step 14 above. Click Verify:

Notice that the certificate has been validated. The certificate will be used for both authentication and tunnel encryption. Click Add and add the user name and password created in step 16 above:

Click Next, and Finish.

Finally, create a new backup copy job using the Cloud Repository as a backup target: